Industrial Contractors, Inc. v. Taylor

Summary

The North Dakota Supreme Court reversed and remanded a judgment affirming an administrative law judge’s determination that Leonard Taylor’s employment with Industrial Contractors, Inc. was not seasonal employment. The Court held that the ALJ misapplied N.D.C.C. § 65-01-02(27), which includes nonpermanent occupations and requires consideration of the employer’s customary practices at the time of injury. The dissent would have affirmed, concluding that the occupation of electrician was not seasonal because Industrial Contractors customarily employed electricians throughout the year.

Holdings

1. The statutory definition of seasonal employment is expansive and includes occupations that are not permanent or that do not customarily operate throughout the entire year. The alternatives are disjunctive, and seasonal employment is determined by what is customary with respect to the employer at the time of injury.
2. Taylor's employment was seasonal under N.D.C.C. § 65-01-02(27) because the evidence showed that Industrial Contractors customarily hired electricians for nonpermanent project work and generally laid them off when projects ended; the transfer of nine electricians did not establish that year-round employment was customary.
3. The Court must independently review the ALJ's legal conclusions and statutory interpretation, while deferring to factual findings supported by the weight of the evidence.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the ALJ misinterpreted and misapplied N.D.C.C. § 65-01-02(27) in determining that Taylor's employment was not seasonal employment.
2. Whether the ALJ's determination that Taylor's employment was not seasonal was supported by a preponderance of the evidence.
3. Whether Taylor's disability benefits should be calculated under the seasonal-employment methodology in N.D.C.C. § 65-01-02(5).

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded